Grilled Vegetable Tart

      For someone who loves to cook, I own very few cookbooks – three to be precise. 

       The most recent acquisition was one that caught my eye at the local bookstore, Powell's, on a rainy and otherwise boring Portland winter afternoon.  The moment I saw it sitting on a shelf, all new and glossy amongst its used book neighbors, I knew I was going to walk out of the shop with a new cookbook.  The book, that I’m waxing poetic about, is Plenty – celebrity UK chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s ode to fancified vegetarian cooking.  All the cookbooks that I have bought, I have bought for the pictures.  And this one is no exception.  Its pages are chock full of drool-worthy images of all manner of vegetarian foods, cooked up in innovative ways.  And luckily, I had the foresight to buy a version that lists ingredients in cups, rather than by weight.  My only complaint about the book is that the recipes don’t really lend themselves to cooking for a large crowd.  So recently, when I had over a small group of friends for a casual summer dinner in our garden, I decided to finally test-drive a couple of the recipes in the book.   

       I have to say, this cooking experience was a real joy, because for a change, I was following a recipe.  Since I had gone shopping earlier for some of the more exotic ingredients that I did not already have on hand, it was really fun throwing together familiar ingredients into a completely new dish.  For this summer meal, I cooked up Ottolenghi’s Very full tart as a substantial first course.  Ottolenghi qualifies this recipe as A fantastic Mediterranean feast, full to the brim with roasted vegetables.  This description is pretty spot on, except I would say that this tart is overflowing with roasted vegetables -- while assembling the pie, it was hard to believe that I could fit them all in.

The fancy recipe inspired this handblocked menu card -- you can see more of my designs at http://www.etsy.com/shop/5farthings

        This being the start of summer and all, I chose to grill my veggies outdoors, which gave them the added flavors that only grilling can impart.  However, if you follow the recipe from the book, you could simply roast all the veggies in the oven.  In fact, I think this recipe could easily be adapted for a hearty fall dish, bursting with various types of winter squash and dotted with a sharp cheese such as Roquefort.  Stay tuned for the fall version, I guess.
      But getting back to this tart, I think the dinner party was in agreement that the results were absolutely scrumptious.  If the rest of the recipes in this book are anywhere as good as this was, I highly recommend that you immediately trot over to your computer/book store, and order yourself a copy of this beautiful and delicious book, immediately.  And for those of you lucky enough to be in London, do check out one of Ottolenghi's many restaurants there, and leave a comment here for the rest of us to drool over.

Grilled vegetable tart – adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Very Full Tart, Plenty

Serves 8 as a first course and 4 as a main course

Ingredients

1 pie crust, either homemade or store-bought

1 red bell pepper and 1yellow bell pepper, diced into 2 inch chunks

1 medium eggplant, cut into 1 inch chunks

1 small sweet potato, diced into ½ inch pieces

1 small zucchini, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

6 T olive oil

10 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped and coarsely chopped

1/3 C ricotta

4 oz. Feta

10 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 large eggs

1 C heavy cream

Toss together peppers, sweet potato and zucchini, half the thyme leaves, and 2 T of olive oil.  Salt to taste and grill on a hot grill until tender. 

Mix eggplant with 2 T olive oil, salt to taste, and grill until tender.

Mix sliced onions with 2 T oil, and grill until very lightly browned on both sides.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 450 deg F

Lightly grease a 9-inch loose-bottomed tart dish

Roll out pie crust dough to about 1/8 inch in thickness and of a diameter large enough to cover the inside of your tart tin, with a slight overhang over the rim

Lightly press in your dough into the tart tin, leaving a slight overhang on all sides

Cover with parchment, top with pie weights or dried bean, and blind bake pie crust for 30 minutes

Remove weights and paper and continue baking about 15 minutes more or until your crust is golden brown

Remove crust from oven and cool for about 10 minutes

While crust is cooling, beat together cream and eggs

Line bottom of crust with cooked onions

Scatter the rest of the grilled veggies evenly into the crust

Dot the pie with chunks of feta and ricotta

Gently pour the cream mixture into the remaining few crevices surrounding the veggies

Arrange the halved tomatoes on top, and press in very lightly

Sprinkle remaining thyme leaves on top

Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the pie filling has set and is golden brown

Cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting

I made this a few hours before serving and kept it warm in the oven until dinner.  Before serving, I warmed it up once more by heating under a foil for 10 minutes at 350 deg F.

Serve as a main course or a substantial first course, along with a tangy salad.

Paper Chef 39: Tangy Eggplant Rolls with Blackberry-Mango-Chickpea Salad

Spring has arrived in all her glory, here in Portland, Oregon. This is my first spring in the Pacific Northwest, and I have to say, it has caught me unawares. The stunning pink and white camellias, the cheery daffodils and those little purple flowers all over my neighbors’ lawn; not to mention the meticulously planted 'sakura' (cherry blossom) trees that are now in full bloom are all absolutely delightful – and I thought this place was only famous for its roses! Naturally, I wanted to incorporate the rich colors of this gorgeous spring palette into my entry for this month's Paper Chef. So without further ado, here's my take on cooking up blackberries, bulgur, artichokes and eggplant (for a vegetarian take) into an edible, delectable, colorful concoction.

Notes: all oil used in recipe is extra-virgin olive oil
Ingredients are provided as they come up in the recipe rather than up front, because a) I find this method to be more intuitive and b) I’m too lazy to type out all my ingredients twice.
Please excuse my pictures this once; my light was fading fast as I was trying to photograph my creations.

If you like what you see, and hopefully make, please go to paperchef.blogspot.com and vote for my entry :-)

Tangy Eggplant Rolls with Blackberry-Mango-Chickpea Salad

Grilled Eggplant
Take one large eggplant
Slice it lengthwise, brush with oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and grill until cooked and tender
Set aside until ready to plate


Bulgur Pilaf
Sautee ½ a diced red onion with 2 cloves minced garlic until translucent in 2T olive oil
Add ¾ C bulgur and toast for 2 minutes
Add 2 C water to bulgur and cook until evaporated and bulgur is cooked but al dente
Season with salt and pepper to taste

Artichoke tapenade
1 scant cup of water-marinated artichoke hearts
4 large cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Blend together all tapenade ingredients to a spreadable but chunky consistency.
Mix in 1 T extra-virgin olive oil and keep refrigerated.
Ok, now for the blackberries. I initially wanted to make a blackberry vinaigrette and brush it onto the eggplant before grilling, but I just couldn’t get myself to crush those beautiful jewel-like berries. So, I decided to toss them into a sweet-tangy salad instead along with diced mangoes. I added chickpeas to the salad since chickpeas and bulgur have complementary amino acids and also taste yummy together. To make the

Blackberry-Mango-Chickpea Salad

½ C dry chickpeas, soak overnight and cook till soft and tender
¼ red onion, finely diced
1 medium ripe mango, diced
2 T finely minced cilantro
2 T lemon juice
Mix all the above ingredients and toss lightly with salt to taste

Now, to assemble your chef d’oevre:

-- Lay out a slice of grilled eggplant.
-- Spread 1 tsp. (or more) of artichoke tapenade on eggplant
-- Place 2 heaping T. bulgur pilaf about 1 inch from one end of eggplant slice
-- Roll up the eggplant; repeat with remaining eggplant slices and stack side-by-side in oven- proof dish.
-- For the final flourish, top each eggplant roll with a thin slice of Halloumi cheese. This is a very salty and flavorful Middle-Eastern cheese that holds up well to high heat. Place dish into
pre-heated oven and broil until cheese is melted and browned (this happens very fast – be careful).

Serve Tangy Eggplant Rolls with Blackberry-Mango-Chickpea Salad on the side. Enjoy with a chilled glass of Gerwutztraminer -- preferably on an unseasonably warm spring afternoon, under the gentle shade of a cherry-blossom tree.